As We Grow Closer
by S. E. Mercury
Summary: The remaining members of the gang have done their best to return to as normal of a life as they can. In celebration of Trish doing well on a test, she and Fugo rent a movie and grow closer in the process.


**A/N:** This was my first entry for JJBARarePareWeek2019, and I was super excited to participate! I managed to write 7 FugoTrish stories for that week! Five of them occur within the same post-canon AU, and this is the first.

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Fugo found himself, as it seemed he often did these days, with his head on Trish's lap as she played with his hair. It had started several weeks ago when he had accidentally fallen asleep on the couch only to wake to her fingers stroking his hair. After that, it became a habit neither of them felt compelled to break, and gradually his head moved from the couch and onto her lap.

He thought it was nice; it was a sort of non-intrusive physical contact that satiated his desire for human touch without overwhelming him. And Trish seemed to like it as well, as it gave her an opportunity to casually talk one on one with someone.

Trish, at least as it seemed to Fugo, had become the most well adjusted after everything settled down with Passione. She went back to school, made new friends, and overall appeared on the outside to be living a normal life. Of course, Fugo knew better than to say any of them had truly gone back to normal life after that experience. Each of the four of them carried a sense of guilt that seemed as if it would never lighten for varying reasons, and each of them handled it in different ways.

Giorno seemed to be the next most well adjusted, though being the new boss of Passione came with its own set of struggles. On more than one occasion, Fugo had found him sitting at the kitchen table in the early hours of the morning in front of a stone cold cup of coffee, staring absentmindedly off into the distance. Mista, however, appeared to be taking everything the worst. It was a common sight to see him stick his head into a room before entering, refusing to come if all three of them were already there, and only passing through if it was just two people in the room in order to avoid the fourth person coming in unexpectedly. As a result, it was rare to see him in the house, though Fugo wasn't sure where he was all day and hadn't had the heart to ask him.

Fugo himself certainly went through a rough patch after the remaining members of his former team had found him, relaying the details of what happened after he left. There was a good amount of time where he remained locked in his room for days on end, and truthfully it was mostly due to Trish that he had started to feel more normal. It was her encouragement that at first got him out of his own dark room and eventually out of the house at times. Whether it was because she was lonely and he was the only other person home often or if it was because she was worried, he didn't know. And truthfully, he didn't care either. He was content to spend time with her, and had even begun looking forward to their conversations.

On this particular day, Trish was relaying the events of her day to Fugo, who was more than happy to listen.

"Mia suggested the three of us go to the movies to celebrate how well we all did on the test," she said.

"What movie are you going to see?"

Trish's fingers stilled briefly before continuing, "Oh, I don't know what they're going to see. I'm not going."

Fugo raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

She dropped her hands from his hair completely, turning her face to avoid his gaze. "I don't like dark, crowded rooms like that," she said softly.

Fugo suddenly felt very conscious of the position he was in now that her hands had stopped moving and all he could do was look up at her face as she clearly was thinking about things she'd rather not recall. While he didn't know every detail of the things his three friends had been through, he was smart enough to put two and two together to realize that this was a recent change caused by the events. "Well, that's okay, you're certainly not obligated to go or anything."

"I still wish I could though," she replied, pursing her lips a little at the thought of what she was missing out on.

Not wanting to see her sad, Fugo suggested, "We could go rent a movie and watch it here. It would be better than nothing."

Trish's green eyes lit up as she turned her attention back to Fugo. "That would actually be amazing! We could pick something out together and even make popcorn here!"

"Of course," Fugo replied, eyes closing at the feeling of her fingers running through his hair once more. "Just let me know when you're ready to go."

He heard Trish giggle in response and couldn't help but smile to himself at how content he was at the moment. That was until the feeling of Trish tenderly moving his bangs away from his forehead caused him to open his eyes just in time to see her face incredibly close to his own. Her lips pressed against his forehead for no more than a second, but the action made his eyes widen more than they had in his life. Fugo's heart hammered in his chest and he froze on the spot.

Trish's grin faded as she caught sight of his expression, her own eyes widening in response. "Fugo, I'm so so—"

"It's fine," he replied hurriedly as he sat up. Without even thinking, he rushed to his room and closed the door, and as soon as he heard the door click, he knew he had made a mistake. This obviously was the wrong reaction to have to what she did, and he could kick himself for how he thought Trish must be feeling.

It seemed though, that he was about to find out how she was feeling, as only moments later he heard a soft knock on his door. "Fugo?" Trish's voice said, muffled by the wood between them. "I'm really sorry, I wasn't thinking."

Fugo realized he had two options: open the door and confront what had just happened, or stay in his room for the rest of time. Deciding he didn't want to die in his cramped bedroom, he opened the door to see Trish's concerned face. "I was just getting my shoes," he said lamely, despite having been wearing his shoes the entire time. His face felt hot and flushed and it took everything he had not to dart back into the room and chose the first option.

Trish blinked in surprise at his reaction before shaking her head, eyebrows furrowing together. "No, look, okay? I don't want things to get weird between us because of this. It won't happen again. I was just thinking about…" she trailed off, cupping her elbow with her hand.

"Thinking about what?"

She took in a deep breath, eyes turned toward her feet. "Well, I was thinking about when my mom used to play with my hair like that," she answered in a quiet whisper. "She used to kiss my forehead like that too and I guess I just thought…" Trish shrugged, looking back up to him with an expression of confusion and desperation. "You know?"

Her hand was so close to him, it wouldn't take much for him to simply reach out and grab it, to comfort her and let her know he understood. Despite how much he wanted to, something held him back from closing that distance. Whether it was the fear of misunderstanding her intentions and making things even more awkward, or just the general fear he felt when getting close to people, he wasn't sure. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

Trish gave him a small smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "It won't happen again," she promised.

"Alright," he said, shrugging and trying to meet her smile. "Let's go grab that movie, yeah?"

Her expression brightened at the suggestion, and she happily nodded, making her way toward the door.

There was a video store fairly close to the edge of town, so it wasn't too far of a walk for them. The weather was clear and sunny without being too hot, so neither of them were bothered by it. In fact, Fugo noted, Trish seemed to be enjoying the sun. While only slightly, she slowed down as she walked through the patches of sunlight not obscured by the trees, letting the rays soak into her skin.

It was when they arrived at a crosswalk on the outskirts of town and paused as traffic went by that Fugo finally spoke up. "I don't think I'd mind," he said, hardly in control of the words coming out of his own mouth.

Trish glanced to him in confusion.

"If it happened again," he continued, feeling his face heat up once more. Upon Trish's continued confused expression, Fugo gestured to his forehead.

Trish smiled up at him, eyes sparkling in happiness as she playfully bumped him with her shoulder. He returned the gesture before they walked across the crosswalk, steps in time with each other.

Once they got to the video store, Trish headed straight toward the section she knew she wanted before turning back to Fugo. "Do you have any preferences?"

Fugo shrugged. "Nothing boring."

"Well that's objective," she replied sarcastically with a laugh.

"Pick out whatever you want. We're celebrating your test, after all."

She grinned and continued browsing the movies. It only took her a few moments to pick out the one she wanted. "It's a bit of an older movie, but it was always something I liked watching."

"Are you sure you don't want to pick out something new? I mean, if we're replacing going to the movies, it should be something you've never seen, right?" Fugo said, looking at the shelf of new releases.

"I mean, I guess we could, but none of them really jumped out at me," she replied, glancing back down at the movie in her hands.

"Well that's fine," Fugo quickly backtracked. "It's whatever you're wanting to watch. Besides, I haven't seen that one, so it'll be new for one of us."

"I think you'll like it," Trish reassured him before grabbing the sleeve of his jacket and guiding him to the checkout area.

Fugo couldn't help but notice the way his heart jumped into his throat at the close contact.

Once they arrived back at home, Trish made a bowl of popcorn before curling up next to Fugo on the couch as she pressed play.

"So what's the movie about?" he asked as the opening credits started to roll.

"It's about a girl who's family forgot her birthday," she replied, taking a small handful of the popcorn. "I promise it's more interesting than it sounds."

Fugo nodded in response and did his best to focus on the movie despite Trish's close proximity to him. He made a point to try and reach for the popcorn when she had already had some to avoid accidentally brushing against her hand. Not that he thought he would mind especially, but just to avoid any more unforeseen awkwardness.

About halfway through the movie, the empty bowl of popcorn was moved to the floor and the already small distance between them was closed when Trish rested her head on his shoulder. The contact made Fugo stiffen up initially until she looked up at him and asked, "Is this okay?" The way her eyes searched his own made him feel safe, as if she truly did want to know if he was okay with it.

All he could do was nod in response.

Trish laid her head back down, hooking her arm around his own and drawing it close. It felt natural to Fugo to sit like this, and if he was being honest with himself, it wasn't something he had never thought about. While ordinarily he shied away from any physical contact, he had found over the course of the past few weeks that Trish had managed to become an exception. He had also found that he looked forward to spending time with her and would go out of his way to make sure it could happen, though he had chalked it up to the friendship he craved. But as he looked down at her and the way her soft, pink hair fell into her eyes and the sound of her laughter at something that happened on screen, he couldn't help but wonder if there was maybe something deeper he had been denying.

As gently as he could, Fugo leaned his head down and rested his cheek on top of her head. He felt Trish shift closer to him in response, and he couldn't help it as the corners of his mouth turned up in an involuntary smile.

Once the movie ended, the two of them stood up to rewind the tape and clean up the popcorn bowl. Before Fugo could leave for his room though, Trish grabbed his hand and stopped him. "Hey," she said, "I just wanted to thank you. This was a lot of fun."

"I had fun too." Fugo looked down at her smiling face and with a trembling hand, brushed her bangs away from her forehead. Despite the fact that he knew his face was surely burning red at this point, he leaned down and kissed her in the same way she had kissed him.

Trish giggled, smile widening once she was able to see his face clearly again. She wrapped him in a tight hug, pressing her head to his chest where he was sure she could hear his heart race. Fugo did his best to return the gesture, placing his hands on her back and pulling her close, hoping, as he did so, that he made Trish feel as safe as she made him feel.


End file.
